In an interview with WWE.com, Austin Aries spoke about his debut in NXT and what led to him joining the WWE. Here are highlights:
On why the time is now to come to WWE: “Frankly, it’s the only thing I haven’t done in my career. I’ve accomplished every goal I’ve set out to. I’ve traveled the world, I’ve competed in just about every promotion there is. The last mountain to climb was the one that resides in the WWE Universe. I’m excited to get that opportunity. The NXT brand is as hot as any brand in wrestling, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
On how the opportunity came about: “I became a free agent in the middle of last year. I was seeing what all my options were and had a lot of different opportunities on the table. But from the moment I became a free agent, the WWE opportunity was the one I wanted. Obviously, there were strong plays made by some other companies, but in the end, when WWE offered me an opportunity, I could not turn it down.”
On a 76-minute Best of 3 falls match with Daniel Bryan in ROH: “Funny story about that. Still being relatively new, I was really proud of the accomplishment of being in the ring with someone like Daniel. I walked back through the curtain after the match, very proud of myself and excited to get feedback from my colleagues. I got back to the locker room and not one person was there. They probably decided to go hit the bar around the 45-minute mark. There was nobody left.”
